Daily Briefing

Welcome to Wednesday, July 13. Today’s Briefing was written by Kate Hidalgo Bellows, with contributions from Julia Piper. Write to us: kate.hidalgobellows@chronicle.com.

Could states with abortion bans lose academic conferences?

The American Economic Association is among a number academic associations fielding members’ calls to take a stand for abortion rights by changing their conferences — which can be a boon for local economies — in states that ban or restrict the procedure. Some scholars have vowed to boycott and protest conferences in abortion-hostile states, calling on other academics to do the same. Some scholars in Southern states, however, question these tactics, advocating for academic organizations to give back to their host cities rather than abandon them.

Our Sylvia Goodman explains.

The takeaway: There’s no mad rush to relocate academic conferences after the fall of Roe, but it’s reignited old debates about the political power of boycotts. And there are plenty of scholars who may refuse to attend meetings in abortion-hostile states.

Quick hits.

• The University of Maine system’s Board of Trustees voted to extend chancellor Dannel Malloy’s contract for another year, despite no-confidence votes from several faculty senates over a controversial presidential search at the Augusta campus. (Maine Public Radio, The Chronicle)
• California State University Board of Trustees plans to eliminate the right for administrators who have been fired or put under investigation for misconduct to take on faculty positions within the system. That right was key in the buyout of an administrator at the Fresno campus in 2020, which led to the resignation of the system’s chancellor, Joseph I. Castro. (EdSource)
• The University of Virginia has kicked two fraternities — Phi Gamma Delta and Kappa Alpha Order — off its campus for hazing violations. (WRIC)
• The chancellor of the University of Chicago, Robert Zimmer, is stepping down to focus on his health after being diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain tumor. (CBS)
• Ron Grigg, the women’s track and cross-country coach at Jacksonville University, has resigned following social-media posts alleging he mistreated student athletes. (The Florida Times-Union)
• Cambridge University is working with Britain’s National Health Service to investigate a months-long string of student deaths. Four are suspected to be suicide, and one is a confirmed suicide. (The New York Times)
• The Johns Hopkins University is shelling out $70 million to complete its acquisition of the former Newseum property to make the complex a Washington, D.C., hub for its graduate schools. (Washington Business Journal)

Stat of the day.

82 percent.

That’s the proportion of respondents to a recent survey who said the government should make bringing down the cost of college a priority. Our Audrey Williams June compiled several charts that convey the high costs of college here.

Comings and goings.

• Michelle L. Patrick, who has served since April as interim president of Robert Morris University, in Pennsylvania, has been named president. She is the first woman to hold the post in a permanent capacity at the university.
• Chrystalla Mouza, a professor of teacher education and director of the School of Education at the University of Delaware, has been named dean of the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
• Monte E. Perez, a former president of Los Angeles Mission College, has been named interim president of Fullerton College, in California.
• Brett Padgett, associate vice president for finance at the University of Chicago, has been named senior vice president and chief financial officer at Syracuse University, in New York.

Footnote.

Last summer, we had the Raleigh, N.C., cobra, this summer ... the Albion, Mich., alligator?

On Saturday, Albion College’s nature center reported two sightings of a four- or five-foot alligator near where the Kalamazoo River runs through the center. The nature center closed for several days out of caution, but reopened Tuesday, according to MLive. The college is working with the Department of Natural Resources and an alligator sanctuary to find the creature.

Alligators, to no one’s surprise, are not native to the Great Lakes State. But I can’t really blame the dude for trying to beat the Southern heat.